Sitting at my desk at home with about 8,000 assignments to do, I came to a compelling realization: high school takes a lot out of us. High school is the only place where I’ve read from an ancient Greek play, played a symphony from Haydn and delved into the world of evolutionary psychology, all in one day. That school day was a black day. This is truly the busiest time of our lives, and it shows in the sheer amount of work we put into our everyday schedule.

All this work is good, I really believe that, but to me there comes a time when this constant barrage of information burns us out. After a certain point, all the work starts to pile up. Once that happens, and it hasn’t taken long this year, it’s hard to get back to a state of sanity. Juggling all these different assignments and activities becomes a struggle, and there is only one thing that can solve this problem.

Time. All of us have it, but not that much of it. If only we had all the time in the world to get what we need to get done, it’d be amazing. The only problem is, we don’t. Though there is one thing we can do, and that is make time. No one can just magically make more time appear out of thin air, of course, but we can definitely manage it. That’s all we can do after all, is use our time wisely. Key word wisely.

Now I know what you’re thinking. How on earth do I write a four page English paper, do my Calculus homework and go practice (insert whatever it is you do) after school? Ironically enough, I don’t really have a good answer. I wish I did, for my own brain’s sake. One thing I can do though, is tell you what I think would definitely help.

According to a webpage created by the University of Kent, some of the ways in which we can manage time are to-do lists, prioritising, and avoiding procrastination. As a chronic procrastinator, I agree with a statement from the site that reads closely to “the fear of doing things we don’t want to do is often far worse than any possible negative results.” I may not always recognize it, but it definitely makes me think a lot more about how I waste my time when I should be doing work. The first step in accomplishing any goal is to actually take steps toward achieving it.

Another one way I try to manage time is through the use of to-do lists. No one can remember every task they are assigned throughout the day, and to-do lists are a great way to prioritize and stay organized. While writing assignments down may work best, keeping the information on any kind of note-taking app on a phone works as well. When everything that needs to get accomplished is all in one place, it becomes much simpler to objectively take care of business.

While all of these suggestions may or may not work for everyone, putting in hard work is always a major key to success. Persevering through hard times is a must, but knowing ways to help make that perseverance easier will make life all the more enjoyable in the end.